I don't know what to say for an intro. It's difficult to find the words after such a performance so here are the five points.
1. Trying to force it
Kind of like constipation, United seemed to be pushing too hard and forcing shit out that didn't want to come out.
I thought we appeared too rushed at times especially after the Everton red card. United looked too panicked almost as if they had to get the equalizer right away and while yes, getting the next goal asap was needed, the way we went about trying to get it was not.
There was far too many occasions where we didn't know what to do and kept moving it from side to side with no real urgency and eventually we worked it out wide and just spammed crosses.
I believe that this played into Everton's hands as with no real aerial threat, it was easy for them to defend it. Out of all those 693 crosses, only one caused the Toffees issues. Jordan Pickford had to make an amazing save to keep out Zirkzee.
David Moyes would've also wanted United to move it out wide almost as if they were funnelling us into these areas and said 'go on, whip the cross in. We'll deal with it.' That's exactly what happened.
In trying to rush things, United were also too loose and causal as there were several instances of loose touches, sloppy passes and just an all round lack of desire to take the game to the visitors and put them under real pressure.
The match also got scrappy at times and very stop-start at others which added to the frustrations and worked even more in Everton's favour.
The complacency in this game was real right from the start and was even worse when we played against 10 men. The casualness from us was seen best for the goal and indeed, every time they went forward with Iliman Ndiaye and Jack Grealish in particular causing us all sorts of problems. This is how Everton dominated even with a man disadvantage, got their goal and eventually, their deserved win.
Amorim came out after the match and said that the Toffees were better all 90 minutes: “The way we started the game, the way we didn't understand how we should play against 10 men…”.“Everton deserved to win”.
2. Crosses
Usually when I mention crosses as a point, it's to complain about how little we actually put the ball into the box.
The opposite of this is true this time round.
As mentioned, United looked like they couldn't get the cross in quick enough as every time it went out wide, you knew what was coming.
The frustrating thing about this is that when 6ft 5, can jump higher than most people's height Sesko is in the team, we NEVER cross the ball. He is usually a bystander who would be wondering why he left Leipzig for this shite.
Without him, all of a sudden we want to cross like there's no tomorrow. Yet with a player in Zirkzee who isn't good in the air (or anything, it appears), those deliveries were a waste.
This is why people dub these players 'low IQ' footballers because they do things that make no sense. There was a total of 38 crosses by United and other than that Zirkzee header which Pickford got fingertips to, which other cross was on point?
Fucking idiots man 🤦♂️.
We could clearly see that this tactic wasn't working yet we kept doing it. This just highlighted even further how we struggle to break down a low block. That's why it was important to get the goal when they went a man down but concede first, and what happened will happen.
In order to break down stubborn defenses, the team needs to play quick, incisive football, one that moves the ball quickly and plays one-twos. There was a couple of minutes where we did just that. We didn't panic, we seemed composed, we rotated possession with a purpose and eventually, with this quick play, we got a shot away as Mbeumo asked questions of Pickford before Mount put his shot just wide.
That was the blueprint for what we needed to do yet it lasted only a few minutes.
I suppose to play this b-tech tiki-taka football you would still need some good players.
We don't have those 😐.
3. Can't be bothered
I suppose that this one isn't much of a surprise as we've seen this downing of the tools and not showing up performance before.
Grimsby, the derby, Brentford and now Everton are four matches where this set of players looked like they couldn't care less about anything.
These are four games of a season that has only seen United play 13 in total. That is almost a quarter of all our games played.
A quarter of our matches in 25/26, Amorim's first full season in charge, a season with no European football, a season following our worst-ever campaign, and just four months in and we've already seen four performances that were very reminiscent of that atrocious 24/25. The manager himself said that this is his greatest fear and reverting to what we saw last season: “I feel afraid of returning to this feeling of last season, that is my biggest fear."
I find that regardless of what type of undefeated run we go on or if we get an unexpected amazing victory, eventually, we'll see a game like this because this is who we are.
As long as some of those players who have been failures from the past remain, we will continue to see these type of matches. How long before they drag the new signings down to their crap level?
4. Amorim is risk-averse
After about 15 minutes following Idrissa Gueye's red card, one could see that nothing was happening for United and changes needed to be made. Whether that was a substitution or shifting of players in different positions to help with overloads or have extra players in attack, something had to happen.
I can understand maybe not wanting to make a substitution straight after the red card in the first half despite the man advantage but surely Amorim had to make some amendments or adapt in some way in order to truly make this man advantage work?
I would've told Bruno to push further forward because it's not as if he was helping out in defense as a midfielder and as we were struggling in attack, a player of his creativity was required. Push one of the three centre-backs into midfield to help Casemiro and we should be good.
At halftime, he took Mazraoui off for Mount which many thought was a good change (although it perhaps could've happened in the first half). If things were still not working in our favour, I certainly wouldn't have brought Dalot on because what the fuck is he going to do? Instead, with about 20 minutes remaining and Everton clearly not going on the offensive, surely Martinez could've played. Without any real defending needing to be done, the butcher could've come on and I would've moved Shaw to LWB in place of Dorgu. Even if Shaw broke down, it was worth a shot.
And if even then, United were still struggling to break through, why not push De Ligt forward like we do with Maguire? Considering the amount of crosses we were putting in, someone who is good in the air was surely something to try?
Amorim could've even used Lacy if he was truly desperate. Perhaps the youngster would've had a Federico Macheda moment and saved our arses.
Amorim did nothing which was criminal because it's a red flag in more ways than one: it shows that you are risk-averse, you might not know how to overcome a low block, you don't trust your squad, or you just overall don't know what to do.
As a United manager, part of the job is taking the gamble especially in situations like these. You're losing the game anyway so you might as well try and do something. If it doesn't work you at least know you tried. If it does, then it could spark us into some reaction moving forward.
Why didn't he do anything 😩?
5. Is there improvement?
This match was exactly a year on from Amorim's first game in charge which was a drab 1-1 draw at Ipswich.
12 months later and what has changed?
No really, what has changed?
We still have a group of players who finds it difficult to play in this system, we still can't break down a tight defense, we look more comfortable on the counter, we aren't that good in possession, we look for long balls and set-pieces to score goals, still rely on moments, and concede the stupidest of goals.
If this loss to Everton was the manager's first official match in charge, I would be more accepting of the defeat and overall performance.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that if someone who didn't know that Amorim has been the manager for a year, they would've thought that he had just started the job.
With a week between matches and more time to train and rest, we needed to see a United side that were making large strides forward in terms of their progression. We probably moving backwards at this point.
I mean, they didn't give us European football so the least they could do was show us some good football.
Guess we were wrong 😔.
I can't understand how we go from being so bad last season to something similar this season despite buying new players and having all this extra time.
Amorim said in a recent interview that he's changed in certain things but I don't really see it. He still has that same stubborness that we all don't like, there's no difference to the style, he takes no risks, his substitutions are more questionable than not and he has his favourties.
We used to heavily criticize Erik ten Hag for not having a true identity yet with Amorim, what is our identity?
I'm tired of this. I'm tired of every other game where we don't show up after they give us false hope. It's very difficult as a fan to not believe when the team perform well even in one game but I think after this performance, we shouldn't be surprised by anything anymore.
Just when you think we can't get any lower, we find a way.
Ruben Amorim | Image: Photo by Robbie Jay Barratt - AMA/Getty Images via Manchester Evening News